


Where are you, Stranger?

by Caskettmyheart



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: AU, AU Meeting, Angst, F/F, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3839755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caskettmyheart/pseuds/Caskettmyheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt I read on tumblr.<br/>Laura is out with friends when she has to walk back to her apartment in the middle of the night. She notices someone is following her. As events unfold, she finds herself on the phone with a stranger asking her for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who puts locks on a phone booth?

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Indication of rape, but no graphic descriptions.  
> Descriptions of violence.

Of all the shit happening to her today, she does not need this. Today had been bad enough as it is. Laura woke up an hour late because the battery of her clock died. Of course that had to happen on the day of a very important class in which they took attendance. She barely made it there in time. Her shirt was stained from sweat from racing on her bike. Her hair was not brushed. Her outfit was a horrible sight. But at least she made it there in time. Right? Of course she’d forgotten her laptop charger and notebook in her apartment… 

Then, just when she thought things wouldn’t get any worse, she ran into a teacher holding a steaming hot cup of coffee. Of course it spilled all over her and stained her shirt. When she had finally gotten back to her apartment, she had sighed and cleaned herself up. She’d thought that maybe after a day at University, she’d deserved to go out and relax. Her project was nearly finished and she could leave it for a few hours while going out and enjoying drinks with a few friends. So that is exactly what she did. She called up Danny, her Lit TA who was also her friend, and LaFontaine and Perry: her friends who she’d met through pure coincidence on campus. They met up at a bar near campus only a few blocks from Laura’s place. She decided to walk since it was light enough out there and figured she’d take a cab back. After the day she had, she wasn’t going to hold back on drinks. 

Now, that’s exactly what got her into trouble. It was around two AM when they finally had called it a night. None of them had morning classes fortunately. Laura had started off with strong drinks but by the time midnight rolled around, she’d started drinking grape soda. Her favorite. She was glad she’d made that decision. She clasped her fingers a little tighter around the key and listened to the footsteps that rang behind her. 

Why weren’t there any cabs around? Seriously… She hated walking home alone, LaF and Perry all had to go the other way and Laura had assured them she’d be okay. Danny had walked with her until they had to split up to walk the last few blocks. 

She really missed the tall redhead right about now. She had training in Krav Maga, and her key clutched between her ring and middle finger. Still she didn’t think she’d be able to escape from the guy who seemed to be rapidly approaching. When she saw his shadow appearing in the light, she made a split second decision. She ran.  
She felt so grateful that she hadn’t been able to find her heels before and was now wearing her chucks. She ran and heard the man trying to keep up with her. She didn’t really know if she’d make it home so she decided to run into a big side street hoping to run into anyone that could help her. She couldn’t find anyone and ran faster. She turned the corner and there she saw a phone booth. Well, she could just grab her cellphone but he’d catch her if she stopped running. Then she saw it: a lock. Who the hell put locks on phone booths? What the hell Laura? Just go for it! Her panicked self thought.

She spend towards it and tried to lock the door as best she could with trembling hands. Once it was locked she sat down on the ground and grabbed her phone as she types in the numbers to call Danny. She hits dial and waits as she sees the man racing towards her. She hopes her tiny frame can go unnoticed by the threatening male but she has no such luck. He spots her and she freezes. 

An unfamiliar voice snaps her from her thoughts.  
“Ummm, Hello? Who is this?”

Laura gasps as she makes a split second decision.  
“it’s the middle of the night and I’m walking home alone in the dark and there’s this guy following me and he’s starting to gain on me and I found this phone booth with a lock on the door and I tried to call my best friend but my hands were shaking so badly I accidentally dialed the wrong number and I don’t even know you but help me!” She took a deep breath as the guy’s nasty grin spread on his face beneath his hooded eyes. He yanked on the door handle to try and get it, disappointed to find that he couldn’t open it.

“Woah, where are you?”

“Please, he’s going to kill me. I need your help!”

“Tell me where you’re at and I’ll be there in a minute.” The husky voice said as Laura heard a door slam in the other side of the line. Even though the guy was trying to break the glass, she felt a bit safer inside the phone booth talking to this stranger.

“I’m in a phone booth at Second Street, on the corner of this little bakery. Please be quick!”

It was then that she heard glass break and hear the nasty laugh of the man as he tried to grab her. She latched out at him with her key tight between her fingers. She’d dug it into his arm as he groaned.

“Oh you’ll pay for that bitch.” His demeanor changed and he went from smiling to an angry sneer. She caught a glimpse of his dark eyes underneath the shadow of his hood and knew that she was in trouble. 

The man broke the door open and grabbed her. She didn’t stand a chance as he lifted her off the ground with one hand clutched around her neck.

From the phone that slipped out of her hand, a voice shouted but the sound faded as her ears started ringing. Laura was clawing at his arm and trying to get away from him by kicking her legs. One lucky shot to his groin made him loosen his grip enough for her to fall on the ground and reach for the phone. She crawled upright and started to run.

“Hey? Are you okay? I’ll be there soon.” Came from the phone. “What’s your name, stranger?”

She was still running away but managed to blurt out a Laura. The stranger on the phone then in turn responded with her name.  
“Laura, my name is Carmilla. I’m one block away. Can you hide anywhere?”

Laura wanted to respond with a no but she stumbled over a loose stone on the sidewalk and fell. Hard. She groaned in pain as she clutched her wrist. She rolled over on her back only to find the man still following her. She was dead for sure now.

His foot connected with her ribs. She felt the air push out of her lungs and gasped for air as he grabbed her by her arm to her feet. He dragged her inside an ally and threw her against a wall. Her head connected with the bricks and she nauseous and dizzy. She really should have never quit Krav Maga. 

Other than the man’s laugh, she only heard a muffled voice coming from the phone. The man noticed it and crushed in under his foot.  
“No one’s coming to help you now, bitch.”

He lent down and jacked at her shirt. She still tried to put up a fight, but it was no use as he simply kicked her every time she even tried to lash out at him.

Where’s Carmilla?

One more hit to her head made her black out.


	2. Her eyes gave it away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mention of rape.

Chapter Two. Her eyes gave it away

Noise. There was lots of noise around her but it wasn’t clear where or what it came from. And oh, her head hurt like hell. She felt as though her head was going to explode. It was then that she felt a cold gust of wind run long her bare stomach. Wait, what? 

She sprung up in realization of what had happened. She immediately regretted the action because her ribs were hurting but she remained upright. There was a dark haired young woman standing over the asshole that had attacked her.

She looked down and saw that other than having her shirt half ripped off, all her clothes were intact. Her phone laid shattered not that far from her. It was then that everything came back to her.

She opened her mouth to speak as she girl turned around to face her, the guy was probably unconscious because he wasn’t moving anymore.

Laura gaped up at her. She moved closer to Laura and knelt down as she took her leather jacket off.

“Hey there.” Her eyes showed concern but she still gave Laura a small smile. Her voice was like heaven to Laura’s ears who were starting to function properly again.

“Are you- Did you- How…?” Laura’s head was throbbing. The girl nodded and took off her flannel shirt and put it over Laura’s shoulders so that she was covered again. 

“Yeah, I’m Carmilla. Don’t worry about that monster. He’s out and won’t hurt you again.”

Laura didn’t know what came over her but she reached for Carmilla’s neck and threw her arms around her, her wrist still hurting but she ignored the pain. Carmilla stiffened but after a second she held Laura.  
“It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“Thank you.” Her voice broke and a tear escaped her eye. She hadn’t realized how close she had gotten to-  
No. She wasn’t going to think about that. Right now, she just wanted to get out of here. And as if Carmilla had read her mind, that’s exactly what she asked Laura.

“Hey, you want to get out of here, Cupcake?” Laura nodded in response and grabbed Carmilla’s arms to steady herself to get up. Her wrist still hurt, and her ribs were giving her hell, but holding onto Carmilla helped. Once she was steady on her feet, Carmilla helped Laura into the shirt she was previously wearing and now covered up the torn shirt underneath. She grabbed her leather jacket off the floor and put it over Laura’s shoulders as well. 

“Wait, what about you?” Laura had noticed the tank top Carmilla was wearing. It wasn’t one of the coldest nights, but the wind had an icy feeling to it. She couldn’t let the other girl get sick.

“Don’t worry about me, Creampuff. The cold never bothered me anyway. 

For some reason unknown to Carmilla, this made Laura chuckle. Carmilla gave Laura a look.  
“You’ve never seen Frozen?” Laura chuckled. 

“Uh, I’ve seen things that are frozen… What is that? A kid’s movie or something?”

Laura just laughed in response. The laughter soon faded as a groan came from the guy still on the floor. Carmilla and Laura both looked at him. Carmilla stepped in front of Laura as the guy opened his eyes.

“You bitch.” He put his hands on the ground to push himself up but Carmilla knocked them out from underneath him with a swipe of her foot. His head hit the concrete again and he continued to whimper.

“What are we going to do with him?” Laura asked as she studied the slightly taller girl. 

“Don’t worry about it. I called the police when our line disconnected.” It was then that Laura noticed the sirens closing in on them. She hadn’t thought they would be coming this way, because it’s a city after all. A lot goes on around here. “If fact, I think they’re here.” Carmilla’s posture stiffened a bit as she turned towards the police car that had stopped right before the ally they were in. 

She put a hand on Laura’s back and led her towards the car, away from the guy still clutching his head. She was a bit wobbly on her feet since she’d twisted her foot when falling down, and she couldn’t stand completely upright because of her ribs. She was holding her hurting wrist with her other hand. Man, this was going to be hell to explain to her friends without having Danny go on a killing spree. 

There were two police officers. One was male, one was female. The female cop told Laura she’d ask her a few questions in private while the male officer went to the attacker to arrest him. When Carmilla stepped away from Laura to let the cop do her job, Laura grabbed Carmilla’s wrist with her good hand. 

“Don’t worry. I’m just going to help put that asshole in the car. I’ll be right back okay?” This seemed to calm Laura as she loosened her grip on Carmilla’s wrist. The female cop gave Carmilla a thankful smile and turned back towards Laura.

The female cop told Laura her name was Kate Beckett. Officer Beckett asked her do describe what happened and Laura went over all the events. She told her everything from the moment she noticed that the guy had been following her, until the moment she blacked out and woke up to see Carmilla standing over the perp.  
“So it never got to the point of rape, only attempted rape, correct?” Officer Beckett carefully asked. It would have sounded a lot harder coming from anyone else, but this cop seemed to be good at addressing people.   
“No, but that doesn’t mean he’ll walk right?” Laura’s mind suddenly flooded with the fear of running into him again if that were to happen.

“No. We’ll make sure he gets charged with assault and attempted rape.” Laura took a deep breath and nodded in understanding. “And with a second witness, it’ll be more likely for him to be off the streets for a while.”   
Laura wasn’t stupid, she knew that in the real world guys like that often walked. Or were arrested but never stayed in jail for long. It wasn’t like the movies where justice won. She swallowed hard at the thought of other girls having gone through the same thing and not seeing their attacker be put in jail. 

Officer Beckett captured her attention again and asked: “Do you want us to drive you to the hospital? You should probably get those wounds checked.”

Laura’s eyes drifted to the back of the car where the guy was sitting. He was not looking at her, but she still didn’t feel safe. Officer Beckett seemed to notice this and reassured her.

“Don’t worry, our colleagues will be arriving soon and they’ll take him to the precinct. I can stay here and take you. Is that okay with you?” Her voice was soft and friendly. 

Laura nodded and looked around for Carmilla, who was being questioned by the male cop.  
“As soon as my partner is done asking questions, I’ll take you there.”

The cop walked to her car where a second car pulled up and they exchanged a few looks. Laura was silent. She was shivering and looking at her feet. She just waited for Carmilla.  
\--  
Carmilla glanced back at Laura, who was now standing there all by herself. Looking ever so small. The cop, whose last name was Esposito, had been asking her questions to know her side of the story. 

“Last question, then we’re done.” Officer Esposito said softly. “You came to the scene as he was attacking her, correct?”  
“Yeah,” Carmilla looked back at him and sighed. “I was running here because I saw him dragging her in the ally. He threw her against the wall over there.” She lifted her chin to the spot next to the broken phone.

“From what I could see, she passed out and I just threw myself at him. I just had to get him away from her.” She shook her head at the thought. She hoped he wouldn’t ask her too many questions because some of the things she’d done… She wasn’t proud of it. But the other option wasn’t really an option. She couldn’t let that guy get away.

“You did a very brave deed. It was good of you to call us Miss Karnstein.” He gave her a small smile and told her she was free to go. He was going to take the bastard to the precinct.

 

Carmilla walked over to where Laura was still studying her feet.   
“Hey… Everything alright?” she wanted to keep it light, but failed miserably as her voice gave away her concern.  
“Yeah uh, I’m- I’m good.” Laura had a frown on her face but shook it off and sighed.

“Officer Beckett is willing to drive us to the hospital and then home afterwards. Good for you?” Laura was looking at her expectantly.

She didn’t know if she wanted to go with this cop… She seemed okay, but to say she had a problem with authority figures was an understatement. She didn’t want to disappoint Laura but she wasn’t sure if she should go with her.  
“I uh- I kind of have to go…” she saw Laura’s expression fall. Laura bit her lip and Carmilla thought she was going to draw blood if she didn’t stop her.

Before she could say anything, Laura spoke up.  
“Yeah, no. Of course!” She forced herself to be okay, that much was obvious to Carmilla. “You should go. I can handle myself. It’s getting late anyway.” Laura turned away from her too quickly and flinched at the pain her ribs were causing her.

“Laura- wait.” She took a step forward but came to a stop as Laura stopped too.  
“Oh right, you want your jacket back right?” It were the eyes. Laura’s eyes gave away that she’d crushed the smaller girl’s hopes. Laura started taking it off, being careful of her wrist. She held it out for Carmilla to take and Carmilla couldn’t do anything but take it.

“Oh right… uh your shirt.” Laura looked down at the red and black flannel she was wearing over her torn shirt.   
Carmilla found her voice again and spoke up. “Keep it. It’s fine.” It came out all wrong, she thought. Too harsh.  
Laura nodded. “Well, uh… Thank you, Carmilla. For everything.” Laura turned on her heel and walked towards the car where Officer Beckett was standing, waiting for her.

Carmilla stood there for a second, watching her get inside the car. She sighed and licked her lips in defeat.  
“That’s not what I wanted to ask…”  
\--

Laura sat in the police car next to Officer Beckett. She felt a bit better than before physically, but emotionally she was hurt. Why was she even hurt? She’d just met Carmilla. She had no reason to feel hurt by her not wanting to follow her to the hospital. It was nearing three AM by now after all…

“We’re almost there, Miss Hollis.” The soft voice of Officer Beckett snapped her from her thoughts. “Do you want to call anyone? You can use my phone.”   
Laura gave her a smile and accepted the phone from the cop. Would anyone even answer? Calling her dad was out of the question. There was no way she was telling him about this anytime soon. He’d have her living back home in a heartbeat. 

She could call Danny… She’d help her through this for sure. But she’d also hover over her for a month after this and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that right now.

One thing she was sure of, with her phone crushed, she’d never find the phone number of Carmilla again. She had no idea which numbers she put in wrong. Trying them all out seemed… not the best idea.  
She sighed as she gave them phone back to the cop who gave her a confused look.  
“I don’t have anyone to call right now.” She bit the inside of her cheek as she blinked away the tears forming in her tired eyes. The realization of what happened finally set in.

“I can stay with you. I’ll drive you home afterwards too. And I’ll try and get your sim card from the evidence after they’re done with it, okay? I have your address in case anything comes up.”  
Laura just nodded in response. She knew the cop was just doing her job, but it felt good to have someone around who was there for her. She’d probably dealt with this a number of times.  
“Thank you, Officer.” They pulled up into the hospital parking and got out of the car. Laura eyed the building and sighed.  
This night was not over yet, and she had a feeling it was going to be a dreadful one. She hated hospitals. She hated pain. And now she’d be in both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caskettmyheart.tumblr.com  
> I've noticed people put there tumblr here, and I got my first reader to contact me there this week. It made me very happy!
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I'll stop this at three parts, but there will be a third part for sure!


	3. Beneath the stars

Chapter Three

Carmilla walked to her apartment without much further thought. She finally reached her door at around three AM with everything that happened this night flooding back into her mind. After she locked the door she wandered to the fridge and grabbed herself a drink.  
“What a night.” She sighed to herself and fell down on the couch. She picked up the remote from the place where she left it when she’d ran out the door only about an hour before. She turned the music back on to the low volume it had been. She didn’t like to keep the volume down, but she had to. After all, being the creature of the night has its pros and cons.

She hadn’t known what to expect when she raced out the door with the frantic voice on the other side asking for her help. But never could she have imagined the jab her heart felt when Laura had told her to go.  
She now realized she shouldn’t have implied that she had to leave in the first place. But if Laura had just let Carmilla finish that sentence, she would have realized Carmilla wanted to make sure she was okay. That she actually wanted to go with Laura to the hospital.

_Whatever_ , she thought to herself and she took another swig from the bottle. Now what was she going to do? She’d just been enjoying music and a good book before but she knew she’d never be able to focus on the words on the page.  
Sleeping was not an option… She never fell asleep before four AM. She took another swig of the bottle when she remembered her phone. She took it out and went to her call history. There it was. Staring right back at her. Laura’s number. Should she save it? Should she just ignore it?

_Wait._ Was she really hoping to meet her again after what just happened to her? Way to go, Carmilla. She rolled her eyes at herself. Something terrible had just happened and she was thinking about the girl and how beautiful and kind she was?

The locked her phone and threw it on the empty spot next to her. She stood up and finished her drink before taking off her black pants and changing into her sleeping gear, which basically meant panties and a shirt. She fell face first on the mattress and sighed. The moment she saw her being taking into the ally replayed in her mind.

_She froze for the slightest second and then she ran. She spend towards the ally faster than ever before. When she reached it she saw the attacker throwing Laura against the wall.  
“Hey!” Carmilla yelled and before the guy could respond or turn around, she grabbed his neck and lifted him up from the ground. Her hand was closing around his neck and he squirmed. Her other hand was balled up in a fist by her side. He tried to get out of her grasp but she would not let him go. She shot a glance at Laura who was slumped against the wall, passed out. _

_A wave of rage hit her by the sight of Laura’s torn shirt, exposing part of her bra underneath. How dare he do that to her?! She gritted her teeth and growled as she threw him against the wall._  
“How dare you attack young girls like that?” She spat at him as he tried to get up. He was still grinning. This guy actually thought he’d get out of this alive?  
“Two fucks instead of one. And two feisty ones I might add.” He was now up on his feet and spit on the street next to him. 

_Her fist formed into two fingers pointing towards the ground. When he came charging at her, she pushed them forward into his throat causing him to gag. He stumbled back and heaved.  
“You bitch!” _

_“Tell me something I don’t know.” She said as she kneed his stomach and delivered the final blow with her elbow on his back. He crashed down right in front of her feet. Her fists were once again balled up in anger. She rolled her head to crack her neck as her tongue rang over her teeth. She could feel the pointy corners getting bigger and sharp._

_A moan came from behind her and she snapped out of her trance. Laura. She noticed the girl gaping at her when she was reminded of the fact that her shirt was almost ripped off. She didn’t waste a second in kneeling down beside her and shrugging off her jacket to hand it to her._

_Laura did ask her the harder questions, but she was glad she didn’t have to answer them right away. The technicality of her being able to take out a man that tall and big on her own was not easily explained._

_When Laura reached out to circle her arms around her neck, she was thrown for a moment. She wasn’t one for physical contact. But she knew the girl could use it after all she’d been through. She held Laura close before reassuring her she was safe now._

_The dirty blonde haired girl seemed to be going over what happened, or almost happened and she just had to snap her out of that with a: “Hey, you want to get out of here, Cupcake?” The nickname naturally followed. She helped her up after that and helped cover Laura up._

_Seeing the girl laugh felt like a fire running through her normally cold body. It was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever heard. Though the attacker had to steal the show and decided to groan at that moment when they were finally enjoying themselves after a horrible incident._

_She stepped in front of Laura, making sure she was out of harm’s way before she kicked his hand away and made him fall on his face again._

_The sirens came towards them as she guided Laura away from the perp._

_\--_

Carmilla shook her head, reliving the events was not something she hoped she’d be doing for the next couple of weeks. A few hours afterwards, she still considered it okay. But after this she was done and she’d go back to her life as if nothing happened.

_Something did happen though._

She groaned to herself. Her mind was not cooperating. She rolled her eyes at herself.  
“Am I really talking to myself?” She sighed and rolled over on her back. She looked up at she lights on the ceiling. She remembered coming here to see if she liked to buy the apartment when she walked into this room and loved it solely because of its ceiling. The lights shone like little stars in a night sky. The ceiling was a dark shade of navy blue where various constellations captured her attention. She had lain on her back on the wooden floor where her bed was standing nowadays just to capture the moment. She’d decided then and there that she’d buy this place, even though it wasn’t as big as some other offers.  
She loved the stars and moon and thought one of the big downsides of living in the city was that you rarely ever saw them clearly.

Her stars always calmed her down after a hard night, but now she just turned them off and rolled back onto her stomach. She forced herself to sleep after putting on an audiobook. They usually calmed her down since the voice was really pleasant to listen to. It got her mind off Laura as she listened to the man reading the book out loud. She didn’t pay attention, she didn’t really have to. She knew all the words by heart either way. After a few minutes, her surroundings faded around her, and she drifted off into a calm sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's shorter than the last but I really wanted to give you all an update after Paris.
> 
> I'll continue this for now. I don't know how many more chapters I'll write, but I'm having fun with this one. 
> 
> Questions or fangirling is always allowed in the comments or on my tumblr: Caskettmyheart.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks as always for reading.  
> \-- Lina out.


	4. Heartbeats and Ringtones

Chapter Four

Her hands were shaking. Even with the cast around her wrist, her hand was really unsteady.  
“Dammit…” She groaned as she grew more and more frustrated with herself. New phones were so fragile and the pin to open the sim card lock was so damn small.

An excited squeak left the dirty blonde when the little plastic piece of the sim card lock shot out of its place. Her hands fiddled to put the card in and turn on the phone.

When Officer Beckett had informed her the sim card was still intact, she’d been so relieved. She’d tried to convince herself Carmilla wouldn’t think twice about her since that night. She’d tried, and failed. She still hoped Carmilla had maybe sent her a text, asking if she was alright. That would be a normal thing to do, right? Or was it totally weird that she wanted a text from someone who saved her from a horrible situation that happened to have your phone number because of it?   
Seeing as her old phone was beyond repair, and the call wouldn’t be visible on this phone, she really hoped Carmilla had sent her something. She just wanted to send a thank you. Yeah, just a message of gratitude. That was it. Nothing more.

She took a deep, exaggerated breath as she saw the phone light up and waited for the phone to signal a message. Then of course, the set up screen popped up and she wanted to face palm herself – but didn’t because the cast would hurt – and went through the settings as fast as she could. When she saw the screen to give in the pin to finally unlock the phone for the first time, she quickly typed in the numbers and bit her lip. Why was she so damn nervous? There was nothing to be nervous about.

She sighed as the home screen started at her. She could have sworn it was mocking her for even thinking about this. It felt like an eternity as she waited for any new texts to arrive. She knew these could take time, since her sim card had been offline for the past week. Her thoughts trailed back to the night exactly a week ago, and she shivered. Luckily, she was snapped out of them as quick as her mind had wandered off. The standard ringtone of the phone echoed through her apartment. She scrolled down the menu to see what it was and tapped it before she could read it. The phone brought up the message app and though the smile didn’t completely disappear, it faded slightly as she read the contact name. Dad.

She’d called him when she got home with the phone of her neighbor, who was a very sweet old lady. Laura used to walk her dog for her until the little one got sick. Alice, the old woman, had been very sad for a long time after that. Laura always helped her with anything she needed, so when Laura asked to borrow her phone, she didn’t object at all. She didn’t get that not everyone had a landline anymore these days. She didn’t ask any questions about it either, which Laura appreciated.

Her dad had asked her a bunch of questions when she’d told him her phone got busted. And for the first time she could remember, she actually lied to her dad. She told him she’d dropped it and someone had accidentally stepped on it. She didn’t say anything about the cast on her wrist, her bruised ribs, and the bump on her head, or the lady dressed in black and red. She just couldn’t get herself to make him worry about her. She’d tell him when she was healed. Yeah, at the time that seemed like a good deal.

The messages on her phone were from before the call. Asking her how she was, and if she was there after he’d attempted to call her. He’d also sent her a text after the day they talked to text him as soon as she had a new phone. So she did. It was simple, but reassuring.

Nothing other than the messages from her dad came through.   
“What am I thinking?” Laura sighed to herself out load. Was she really talking to herself? _Ugh._

She stood up, leaving the phone on the couch. She walked straight through the bedroom and into the bathroom. She could use a hot bath right now. Though she’d been living with the cast on her wrist for a week, and there were at least two more to go, she still had a lot of trouble with dressing – and undressing – herself. Her ribs didn’t hurt anymore, and the bruises on her skin were fading slowly. Her ankle wasn’t a problem anymore from the second day on, but the cast… It had been a nightmare.

She wore sweatpants and a tank top with a loose sweater every single day. She found it hard to button anything, so she avoided those. But now she was glad to let her foot slip into the warm water. She enjoyed taking baths. There was something about the water that made her feel calm.  
Her thoughts soon drifted off to the dark haired girl she’d dared to call a hero in her mind. She’d dreamt about her. Her and the events of that night. Like what might have happened if Carmilla hadn’t been the one to pick up the phone.

She took a few deep breaths and let her body slide down the tub to cover herself with water. Her legs and cast were propped up on the side as her hair floated around in the water. After a moment of the water stilling from movement, she only sound she could hear was her heartbeat. No image in front of her closed eyes, no sounds of the city, simply her own heartbeat.

\--

It was mocking her. The digits were staring back at her from the opposite side of the couch as she sat cross legged, with a pillow wrapped in her arms. A frown was present as she held a staring match with the bright numbers.

 _How was she doing? Was she having any more trouble with her injuries? Was she having trouble sleeping?_ These were the questions Carmilla was asking herself. She didn’t do _this_. This worrying. She always thought people should stand up for themselves, and that there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. But Laura had her mind turned around.

All she’d wanted to ask Laura when she’d reached to stop her from walking away that night, was if she would mind if she’d texted her. But she’d ruined it. If Laura had only let her finish what she was going to say, she wouldn’t have to wonder all these questions and she could just ask her instead. If she did that, her mind would stop thinking about the slightly shorter girl and she could go back to her life of solitude. Yeah, that would work.

She reached for the phone and pressed the call button. The listened as the dial tone went on and on. She realized she had no idea what she was going to say right before Laura’s voice spoke the automated voice mail message. She was going to go one of two ways: either better than it would have gone if Laura would have actually picked up, or terribly, terribly wrong.

The beep sounded and then it was her move.  
“Hey.” Well that was a solid start.   
“I was going to ask you how you were doing but I figure you’re asleep or busy or whatever. Not that I care.” _Fuck I shouldn’t have said that._   
“I just don’t want my favorite shirt to fall into the wrong hands. Take care of it or whatever.” The ‘whatever’ made her sound less caring. Should she really be going for less caring?   
“Take care, Cupcake.”

Take care? _Take care?_ She groaned to herself after hitting the ‘end call’ button. At least it didn’t seem like the cared too much now, right? She swallowed and sighed to herself.

She was about to toss her phone back on the couch when it vibrated in her hand. For a second there, she thought it was Laura calling her back. But that would be too soon, right?

The name on her phone had her heart skip a beat and put her mind back in dystopia with the five letters screaming at her. _Maman._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. It's not that long. It took a while to write this one... School is being a pain in the... butt.
> 
> I'm sticking to my goal of one chapter a week but since the video -yes that video- was uploaded and killed us all, I had to write something about that before this chapter.
> 
> So here is the next chapter. I hope you liked it. I promise they'll find their way back to each other... One way or another.


	5. Memories and Broken Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait. I updated Opposites Attract two weeks ago and I was planning on an update for this one last week... But I'm in the middle of my exams.
> 
> I know it's short but I wanted to give you all something for your patience and I found some time to write between the studying.

Chapter Five

Carmilla woke up with her head pounding. She groaned as she tried to turn herself over on her back. But as she was lying on the not-so-wide couch, she rolled off the edge and fell on the ground. A grunt escaped her lips as she slowly reached for her – now worse – pounding head. How did she get to this position again? Oh right, Maman…

Carmilla took a deep breath and sat up. Now her head was spinning, great. Why did she have to drink again? She felt something stick on her forehead and looked at her hand. Blood? From the scent, she knew it was her own. Well, that was a relief.  
She regarded the clock. Nine am. Way too early for her liking, especially after the long night she had. But that did explain why she still felt a bit hungover. Her hangovers cleared up pretty quickly, perks of being a creature of the undead, but seeing as it had only been three hours since she’d started downing the clear liquid…

She stood up slowly and walked into the bathroom to examine where the blood came from. She didn’t see any cuts on her head so then she looked at her hands more carefully. There was a cut that ran across the palm of her hand. It was already healed a bit, and she couldn’t actually feel any pain – but then again, that was probably because of the alcohol.

She then remembered what she’d cut herself on only a few hours ago. She had answered the call from Maman and immediately went to grab a drink. She already knew beforehand how the call was going to go, so she wanted to have her drink ready.   
_“Hello Mother,” She’s spoken in the most neutral tone she could manage when being angered._  
“Hello Sweetheart. I thought it was time we had a little talk.” Her voice brought shivers down to her very core. She knew what ‘talk’ meant.   
“What do you want mother?” Carmilla didn’t feel like playing games. She knew this was a risk but she didn’t care right now.   
“You didn’t come when I sent for you. I can’t imagine my message being at all unclear.” Her voice was cold as always.  
“It wasn’t. I just didn’t feel like leaving my apartment.” Carmilla said. It wasn’t untrue. But it wasn’t the entire reason.   
“Don’t lie to me Carmilla. You and I both know why you didn’t come. Are you still upset over that silly little creature?” Carmilla was good at reading people but Maman had never been one of them. Her voice had changed. There was a bite to it yet she was sure Maman was mocking her as well. “I thought you’d understand by now. Everything I do, I do for the best.”   
“Do you think I’ll ever understand?” Carmilla’s eyes were burning. Her hand was tightening around the glass in her hand. “You took the only girl I’ve ever loved away from me!”  
“You, my girl, are a glittering diamond. Stone cannot love flesh.” The words were making Carmilla’s head spin. She felt oh so angry but she knew very well that if she tried anything, Maman would make sure she’d think twice next time.   
“And besides, that silly creature couldn’t have loved you. The second she knew what you were she spilled all your secrets.” She heard Maman scoff. “I was merely teaching you a lesson. You’ll understand someday.”  
Carmilla didn’t feel like repeating herself. Her knuckles were turning white around the glass, and she felt the rage run through her body. Her tongue ran along her teeth. She knew how this would end if she wasn’t careful.   
“Is there a reason you called, Mother?” She more stated it than asked. She wanted this to be over as soon as possible.   
“Why yes, there is. I wanted to point out that I do not appreciate you not responding to my invitation and I demand it not be repeated.” She said with a light tone in her voice, though Carmilla and Maman both knew she was being as serious as can be.   
Carmilla’s teeth gritted as she thought of what happened the last time she disobeyed Maman.   
“Fine.” It wasn’t at all friendly, but Maman seemed pleased.  
“Good. Goodbye Sweetheart.” The call disconnected and Carmilla’s nails dug into the glass, shattering it and sending a sharp pain through her hand.   
“Fuck!” 

So that was not a pleasant conversation. They never were. Things between Maman and her only went downhill from the moment Carmilla had told her she was gay. She’d rather not remember those days.

She went back into the living area when she was that she’d pushed the glass aside, but never really cleaned it up. She sighed to herself before going to the kitchen to grab the broom.   
This was going to be a long day.

\--

A little while later, she’d cleaned up a bit. Her apartment was still a mess, there was no doubt about that, but at least the broken glass, the empty vodka bottle, and the couch was cleared. She had only cleaned up the mess that was her couch to fall down onto it again afterwards.   
It was then that she realized her phone was missing from her pocket or its usual spot on the coffee table. She frowned before putting a hand between the cracks of the couch to look for it. Sure enough, it was stuck between the back side and the bottom part.

Her notification light was blinking and her heart jumped. Maybe it was Laura? Oh no… Maybe she’d called Laura in a drunken mood last night. _Oh shit._ There was only one way to find out.   
She unlocked her phone and tapped the notification without reading it.

Of course, a missed call from Laura and a voicemail message. She wasn’t sure if she should listen to it. She remembered her own voicemail message to her and flinched.

_“Hey. I was going to ask you how you were doing but I figure you’re asleep or busy or whatever. Not that I care. I just don’t want my favorite shirt to fall into the wrong hands. Take care of it or whatever. Take care, Cupcake.”_

Yeah… Not a good start.   
She reluctantly typed in the code to listen to her voicemail and waited.

“Hey Carmilla. It’s Laura. I was actually still awake but I didn’t hear my phone go off, sorry. Oh right- you said you didn’t care.” Carmilla could hear Laura’s disappointment in her voice as she spoke the last sentence.  
“I uh- I promise your shirt is in good hands but I wouldn’t mind giving it back. You said it was your favorite after all. Maybe we should meet up so I can give it to you? I’ll take care of it until then. Text or call me back with your answer. If you don’t want to that’s totally fine too! I mean, I don’t see why it’s such a big deal but if you don’t care then I – Oh shit I’m rambling. Sorry. O-kay I’m gonna go now…”   
Carmilla laughed at the way Laura dragged out the words as she realized she was going on and on without any purpose.

“See ya, I guess. And otherwise, bye.” She heard the phone being moved when a hint of hesitation was heard through the line.

“And Carmilla?” She paused as if waiting for an answer. In her head, Carmilla responded to the message.

“Thank you.”

Carmilla allowed herself a small smile. That girl really had to stop thanking her.


	6. Late Night Talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Description of the events will be brought up again.

Chapter Six

So this was happening. She was nervous. Why was she nervous? Her hands fiddled with the plaid shirt while her foot tapped on the ground. She pulled her lip in between her teeth repeatedly. It was just Carmilla she was meeting, yet she felt like this was so much more than that.   
She got there fifteen minutes early. She liked to be early to places. But this time it might actually be the cause of her nerves. She was overthinking this. It’s just a meetup to give her the shirt back. The shirt that she’s actually gotten quite fond of over the past three weeks.

Carmilla had texted her two days after she left the voicemail message, saying she’d gladly take her up on her offer. Laura smiled at the memory of receiving that text. Nothing was going right that day and her cast was annoying her. But Carmilla saying she wanted to meet up? It had made her smile.   
Though now she actually felt reluctant to give the shirt back. She knew from that day forth that she’d have to part with it so she kept it close. She even wore it again. Was that creepy? No… Yes. Maybe. It just made her feel safe.

Now she sat there, a week and a half later, waiting for the other woman to show up. She checked her watch again. It stared back at her, pointing out that it was already ten minutes past four. Carmilla was supposed to be here by now… She checked her phone again. No new notifications.   
Laura took a deep breath and sipped her coffee again. What is Carmilla didn’t show? But why wouldn’t she? Laura shook her head at herself. This was getting ridiculous.

She heard the bell at the door and saw the dark brunette walking in. Laura saw her but she wasn’t sure the brunette noticed her. Carmilla stood in line for coffee like any other costumer, not paying attention to her surroundings, it seemed.

Right when Laura thought about getting up to stop Carmilla walking out the door with her order, their eyes met. Laura gave her a small smile and sank back down in her chair. Carmilla joined her on the opposite side of the little round table.

“Hi,” Laura started, unsure of what to say now that they were finally face to face again. She figured this was a safe start.   
“It’s good to see you again.” Carmilla looked up at her, her face blank but her eyes seemed content.   
“It’s good to see you too.” She nodded towards Laura’s cast. “How’s that been treating you?”   
Laura shrugged in response, “Oh you know. It itches.” Carmilla scoffed. “But it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Laura continued.   
“That’s good.” Carmilla spoke flatly. Her eyes wandered towards the shirt still clutched in Laura’s hands. Laura followed her gaze and had a moment of realization, as if she’d forgotten it was there. She let the fabric slip through her hands as she pulled it away from herself with her good hand, and held it out for Carmilla.   
“There you go. I washed it and everything. Thanks for letting me borrow it.” Their fingers brushed and Laura couldn’t held but notice the way her hands felt unnaturally cold.  
For some reason, Carmilla scoffed while she took the shirt from her. Laura frowned and looked down at her hands.  
“Cupcake, you should stop thanking me. I’m no hero. It’s all over now and I was just glad to help. You thanked me enough for that.” Carmilla was granting her a smile and a soft look in her eyes. It wasn’t pity for what happened, which she was grateful for.  
She thought about apologizing for a moment before she realized she shouldn’t. Instead she smiled back, the frown forgotten, and simply stated “Okay.”

Carmilla eyed her cast again. “So, when is your arm allowed to be free again?”  
“In a couple of weeks.” She answered with a sigh. “Normally two more. The teachers are being super nice about it. It’s hard to type when you can’t move your wrist.” She scrunched up her nose at the thought of even trying to write any papers for her classes. “And my Lit TA is one of my friends so she’s been helping me a lot.”  
Carmilla was still eyeing the cast. “Let me guess, her name is Danny?” One of her eyebrows was raised and she was smirking for some reason.  
Laura frowned for a second before opening her mouth to ask her question but Carmilla was ahead of her.  
“Her name is on your cast, it’s bigger than the other two.”   
“Oh. Right.” How could she forget? Danny’s reaction to the whole story had been so protective that the only way to distract her that Laura could think of, was letting Danny write on her cast. It had kept her from asking too many question Laura didn’t feel like answering. It had only lasted for a moment before the questions came up again, but LaFontaine helped to keep Danny sane.   
  
Carmilla sipped her coffee before reaching in her bag and pulling out a sharpie. She gave Laura a look and left the words unspoken.  
Laura just shrugged and put her arm in Carmilla’s reach in the middle of the table.   
“I’d say you can’t look, but this is probably going to take a while and keeping your eyes closed for so long would be weird.” She gently placed her hand on one side of the cast while her left hand made swift movements as the sharpie put its ink on the cast.   
“Wait, what exactly are you drawing on my cast?” Laura was more curious than anything else.  
“Wait and find out, Cutie.” Carmilla smirked but a second later, it disappeared as she focused on the drawing again.   


Laura sipped her coffee with her good hand as the other was in the middle on the table. Carmilla seemed to enjoy herself in her concentration so they fell into a comfortable silence. Laura listened to the customers who ordered. The regulars not even having to voice their order as their faces were always met with a nod from the barista. The coffee machine grinding the coffee beans obviously made the loudest noise but the chatter of the people in the little shop made it bearable.

When she got tired of people watching, she pulled out her phone to check what’s been going on online. Perry had posted another brownie picture. LaFontaine had apparently blown off her eyebrows and a piece of her hair in some crazy experiment gone wrong. And Danny was tagged in another picture of the Summer Society. Nothing new.

She decided to take a picture of her cast once Carmilla was done with it. She knew she’d have to look at whatever Carmilla was drawing every day for the next two weeks, but for some reason she wanted to make sure she got a picture of it too.   
Laura had decided not to look before Carmilla said she was done. Her curiosity was killing her, but she figured it would be much better to see the result in its fully glory. The only thing she had discovered was that Carmilla had pulled out different colors to work with. Purple, blue, yellow, black and even a white one.   
For some reason, she thought maybe Carmilla was drawing her a flower. But then again, Carmilla didn’t seem like the flower drawing type of girl.   
Not much later, Laura got to find out that Carmilla, indeed, wasn’t that type of girl. What she saw stunned her. She’d expected a name in colors or a flower, hell she’d even through of a blue tree for a second. But not the colorful imagine now covering her cast.  
“Wow.” Laura gaped at it, slowly lifting her arm and turning it all the possible ways to get a view of the different angles. “You drew me a galaxy?” She was speechless. Words could not describe the beauty. Both of the cast, and the act.  
“Well, yeah.” Carmilla shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal and every girl just did this for her.  
“Carmilla, this is beautiful.” She smiled widely at her. “I love it!”  
“If those friends of yours ask, I’m not sorry about going over their names.” She spoke with a certain nonchalance that Laura liked. “It looked better this way.” Carmilla grinned and she put the markers away.  
“LaFontaine is going to freak. They won’t mind. Perry won’t mind either seeing as she thought her name was badly written by herself.” Laura was in awe of how amazing it looked. The blue, black, and purple mix colored the cast as the yellow and white made up the stars. Then it occurred to her that it wasn’t a standard issue to carry colored markers everywhere.   
“Do you always carry an arsenal of markers in case you need to draw on some casts, or…” She trailed off, leaving Carmilla to finish the sentence for her.  
“That, or maybe draw on someone’s face when they fall asleep at a party.” She spoke as if it was a normal thing to do.  
Laura’s mouth was wide in exaggerated shock. “You’re one of those people?”  
“Don’t tell me you’re one of the people that falls asleep.” Carmilla was mocking her, and it was working.  
Laura felt her cheeks go red. She bit the inside of her cheek to try and prevent it but it was no use.  
“You are, aren’t you?” Carmilla laughed. It was a beautiful laugh. The kind you didn’t hear often, but when you did, it enchanted you. It captured Laura’s attention for a moment before she realized she was being mocked.  
“Well, no. It was once! I had a rough week and not a lot of sleep, or actual food. But it was just once!”  
Carmilla nodded in response. “Yeah sure.”  
“I swear!”   
“You don’t need to convince me, Sweetheart.” Carmilla held up her hands in defense before grabbing her coffee and drinking more of it now that it had cooled a bit.  
Laura mimicked the action after giving Carmilla a huff in response and realized her cup was almost empty. Carmilla would probably leave when it was, and then she’d probably never see her again. She didn’t really like that thought. They were having fun, weirdly enough. She hadn’t really expected their little meetup to go this way but then again, she hadn’t known what to expect either.

Sure enough, Carmilla moved her chair back and moved to stand up as she spoke.  
“I should get going.”  
Laura took a deep breath and looked at her hands to make sure she didn’t show Carmilla the wave of sadness she suddenly felt. She nodded and replied a simple ‘okay’.  
“Thank you.” Carmilla spoke. Laura looked up at her, and studied her in silence, waiting for the follow up.  
“I really did miss it.” Carmilla was holding her shirt in her hands and looked at it as she felt the familiar material in between her fingers.  
Carmilla’s dark eyes met hers again and showed her an unfamiliar look. Which shouldn’t be too surprising, seeing as they didn’t really know each other at all. But the look made her curious.  
“Goodbye Laura.” She spoke softly, but it still hit her hard. This was it. She wasn’t going to see Carmilla again and she now knew she didn’t want that to happen. The ‘why’ behind the feeling was unclear to her, but she knew she had to see her again.   
Maybe it was the way Carmilla said her name, or the way she didn’t look at her as if she was about to break or needed help. Carmilla drew her a damn galaxy on her cast and made her smile and forget about the events for a while. Their previous conversations hadn’t gone too well, but this one made up for it.  
She managed to smile back at Carmilla. “Goodbye.”  
It felt way too heavy for two acquaintances to say goodbye like this. But then again, they met under unusual circumstances.

Laura decided she’d call Carmilla later. Or maybe just start off with a text. She just couldn’t find anything to say to stop Carmilla from walking out that door. But as Carmilla grabbed the door handle to exit the little shop, she hovered in place for a moment before turning to face Laura again.  
“Let me know what your friends think.” And then she was out the door.

\--

For the next few days, Laura caught herself zoning out while she admired her cast. She’d trace the patterns of stars with her finger. She found out the day after she met up with Carmilla that the stars were actually constellations. She found Aries first. It was on the spot where Danny’s name had been. Pisces was next to it on one side while Taurus was on the other side. This went on over the entire cast. She was fascinated by it and it reminded her of the beautiful brunette. The good memories, not the bad ones. Which was a good distraction from her nightmares that still occurred.

But the one image Laura couldn’t get out of her mind, was the one of Carmilla standing over her attacker. She’d looked to tense. How had she managed to take him down? She wasn’t much taller than her, only a few centimeters. But she did have the air of being tall and mighty. Still, seemingly being strong didn’t make one physically strong. Maybe she knew Krav Maga, or Karate, or Jiu-Jitsu and used that? Laura really didn’t know. All she knew was that she was glad it was over and that it went the way it did. Of course she could have done without the cast, the bruised ribs and the head injury.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by LaFontaine and Perry entering the class. Those two were always together. Though they didn’t know it themselves, everyone around them knew. LaFontaine was the first one to spot her. Soon after, they spotted her cast and their mouth dropped open.   
“Wow, Laura. I didn’t know they had a galaxy option when you got to choose your color. And I thought your next hospital visit wouldn’t be for another week or two?” LaFontaine sat down next to Laura, on the side of her cast. Perry took a seat next to LaF.   
“Well, no they don’t have that option, at least I don’t think they do. And you’re right, it isn’t.” She lifted her arm and showed LaFontaine the masterpiece.  
“You remember that girl I told you about, the one that saved me?” LaF nodded while Perry leaned forward to follow the conversation. “Well, I finally had the chance to return her shirt. We met up in the coffee shop, you know the one I mean. Anyways, she thought she could decorate my cast a bit better than you all had.” She smiled before she realized they might not like their names being erased.  
“So uh, she’s sorry about the names, but it looked better this way.” She lied. She knew Carmilla wasn’t sorry about it, but she didn’t want to give two of her best friends the wrong impression of the girl.  
“Oh L, that’s hardcore. We do not apologize for the hardcore. That’s amazing.” LaFontaine was tracing the constellations. Laura knew they’d discover them sooner than she had. Perry leaned in to take a closer look.  
“It’s very beautiful Laura. I don’t mind at all.” She was being her supportive self.  
“Though,” LaFontaine started as if they just came up with something, “Have you shown Danny yet? She was pretty happy with her name there.”  
Laura shrugged in response. “I’ll show her during lunch. We’re still meeting her in the cafeteria, right?”   
Perry and LaFontaine confirmed her question in unison before their attention was captured by their professor in front of the lecture hall. Their class started and time passed without any of them getting the chance to talk until their lesson ended and it was lunch time.

Danny was already sitting at their regular table when they walked in the cafeteria. Danny smiled when she saw them walk in. They her eyes trailed to the cast and she frowned. Laura pretended not to notice when she sat down opposite Danny. Perry by her side while LaFontaine joined Danny on the other side.  
“What happened to your cast?” Danny didn’t waste any time getting to the point.  
Laura shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I had someone decorate it for me.”  
Danny gave a curt nod. “I thought you liked our names on there.”  
“I did. But don’t you think this is so much cooler?” Laura didn’t understand how Danny could not find this amazing. She reached into her bag and got her lunch and water bottle out.   
“Yeah, sure Laura. It’s nice.” Danny turned her attention to LaFontaine. She obviously didn’t want to talk about it anymore and Laura felt glad about it in that moment.   
She just didn’t get why Danny had to be so weird about it. Couldn’t she just be happy for her without her involvement in whatever it was that made her smile? Laura sighed and took a bite of her sandwich.

Eventually, she told her friends about that night. She didn’t go too much into detail because that simply made her head hurt and brought back the fresh memories of the events. But she did tell them that a guy assaulted her – she couldn’t really hide it – and that Carmilla was there to save her.   
Danny had, of course, asked why she didn’t try and call her when she noticed she was being followed. She had explained that she did try, but failed. She left out the whole accidental call to a stranger part of the story.

The most important thing was that they all knew about it, and had stopped asking questions about what had happened. Now, Laura was ready to move on. Of course the last reminder was only going off in about two weeks. And then there was the fact that she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to throw the cast away. It was so beautiful and for some reason, so special to her, that she felt like she had to keep it. Somewhere. Maybe in her box of memories? She wasn’t sure about that yet.

They finished lunch with small talk. Danny had class and some Summer Society meeting. LaFontaine still had class and Perry and Laura went home. They’d all offered multiple times, whenever Laura had to walk home alone, or take a cab, to go with her but she’d refused them. She didn’t want to feel vulnerable. If anything, she’d thought of tactics to use her cast as a weapon. She just didn’t want someone to protect her. She wanted to be independent. She didn’t need a second dad, though she knew her friends obviously didn’t mean it that way.   
So that’s how she now entered her apartment alone. Everything just the way she’d left it before. She sighed as she put her bag down and plopped down on the couch. She had a project to finish and she should get started on it right away because typing was still one of the hardest things to do without being able to move her wrist around.

\--

Eventually she got going on her project and she worked a few hours on end, her feet propped on the coffee table, laptop on her lap and cookies by her side. A water bottle was lying somewhere within her reach. This had been her setup for every project she’d work on for as long as she had her cast. It was easier than working on her desk, and so much more comfortable.

She noticed hours had passed by since she’d started working on the project and she decided to eat dinner, clean up, and go to bed early. Tomorrow was Friday, and she only had two afternoon classes on Fridays. Most people would be bummed that their weekend couldn’t start earlier, but Laura was glad. This way she didn’t have to get up too early and got to do some work before her classes. She never slept in later than nine am. It was just something she seemed incapable of, unless it was some special event that kept her up until morning. She was kind of grateful for it because she hated missing an entire day or morning to sleep while she could have been doing something productive.

When she finally crawled into bed, it hit her how exhausted she was. Truth be told, her nights hadn’t been calm and she was starting to feel the long term effects of that.   
Her nightmares weren’t always the same so she wasn’t always aware that she was dreaming. Sometimes they just seemed so real. There were nightmares where Carmilla hadn’t shown up, or ones where she’d been too late. Then there were the ones which weren’t much different than the exact events playing out but then the creep would disappear instead of arrested, or he’d go free instead of getting locked up.

This time, her nightmare was a new one. It all started the same. Her noticing the poor excuse of a man, the phone booth, Carmilla, her running and falling plus hitting her head. The ally, and the fight before Carmilla showed up. This remained the same. Though this time, her eyes opened to a different sight. Carmilla wasn’t standing over the guy with fists balled, ready to kick him while he was on the ground. No, this time Carmilla was on the ground and the guy was standing over her. He was kicking her like he’d kicked her. And instead of fighting back, she was just lying there. So still. You’d think she was dead the way her eyes remained fixed on the night sky above them.  
She tried to reach out for Carmilla. Tried to get the attention of the guy on her instead of on Carmilla. But for some reason she couldn’t move. It stayed like this for a while until the guy suddenly turned back to her and in a second, she was pinned up again the wall, hands enclosing around her neck.  
She tried to meet Carmilla’s eyes but Carmilla’s body was now limp, her head lulled to the side and her eyes were closed. A small whimper left her lips as she realized Carmilla was dead.

She jolted up with a gasp. Her heartbeat was racing and her head was hurting again. She took in a few deep breaths as she tried to convince herself it was just a nightmare. Nothing more than a bad dream that pictured her fears. Sweat ran down the side of her face, which she quickly wiped away when she realized it.

She glanced at her nightstand. She could make out the contours of her phone in the light of her digital clock. One AM. Too late to call? But then again, Carmilla had been awake at two AM that night as well. It wasn’t like it was nearly morning. Some people liked to stay up late, right?  
After a few more deep breaths, she decided to go for it and just call her. She mind wasn’t at ease and she needed to know the brunette was okay. Maybe she wouldn’t mind the call and help her get back to sleep? She could only hope.

“Creampuff, hey.” The husky voice on the other side of the call didn’t sound tired at all.  
“Uh, hi.” She noticed her own voice was pretty much the opposite of Carmilla’s. It wasn’t calm, controlled and calming. It was alarmingly unsteady, all too silent and oh so groggy from the restless sleep. And it did not go unnoticed.  
“Laura, what’s wrong?” Laura frowned to herself for a moment, debating whether or not she should tell her about the nightmare.  
“I had uh- a nightmare and… I just,” She sighed. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”  
“Everything is alright with me, Cupcake. It sounds like you’re a bit in distress though. Don’t worry about me. I’m good.” Laura felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It felt really nice to hear it though in the back of her mind, she’d known nothing was really wrong.  
“Okay. Yeah okay.” Laura nodded to herself and ran her good hand though her hair while she clutched the phone in her casted hand.  
“I might regret this later but, want to talk about it?” Somehow, this appeared to make Laura crack a smile. Maybe it was the light tone Carmilla used. Or maybe Carmilla just knew the perfect ways to deal with this stuff while she was a complete wreck.  
“Maybe later.” She decided it was for the best not to talk about it now, though she usually told herself otherwise. Talking always helped. But right now, talking about her nightmare was the last thing she wanted. Though she did still want to talk. “But, Carm?” She heard a hum come from the other side of the line. “Would you mind keeping me company?” Her voice was so small and unsure.  
“The company of a pretty girl, or schoolwork? Mmh, that’s a tough one.” Laura chuckled in response. “Well, since I don’t have anything better to do, why not?”

Carmilla knew exactly where to start with the conversation without there being any awkward silences.  
“So, did your friends scribble their names all over your cast again or is my work still preserved?” It was the question Laura had promised to answer in the coffee shop, and it was the perfect thing to distract her. She turned on the nightlight so that she could see the drawing once more. It wasn’t like she didn’t know it by heart by now, but she simply liked looking at it.  
“The masterpiece is still intact. LaFontaine and Perry loved it.” Laura began and she immediately knew what would follow.  
“Ah, that’s good. What about that Lit TA?” Laura could basically picture the smirk on Carmilla’s face as she told her what had happened. For a not so surprising reason, Laura knew Carmilla would feel a certain satisfaction in the response she got from Danny. She was right.

Then fell into silence a while later. But the question on Laura’s mind was screaming to be released.  
“Why?” she softly asked.  
Carmilla raised an eyebrow, not that Laura could see that, but it’s what she pictured the girl doing. Little did she know, her imagination was spot on.  
“Why what, Cupcake?”  
“Why did you draw me a galaxy? I mean, I love it. I really do. And the fact that you drew actual constellations on there is even more amazing. But out of all the things to draw, like flowers or a landscape or just your name… Why did you draw me a galaxy?” Laura let her head fall to the side to stare out the window. The city lights and pollution caused her to just see a dark blue sky. She’d pulled the curtains closed but there was a tiny gap left through which she watched.  
Carmilla made a noise that sounded like ‘I don’t know’ but she still answered.  
“I’ve just always liked the stars. They’re so beautiful. They give me a humble feeling. How small we are in comparison to the universe out there.”  
“Well, you are right Carmilla. They’re beautiful. I miss looking up at them from my window. I used to do it all the time when I was little. My dad and I lived outside the city far enough to enjoy them without disturbance. Here in the city, it’s a whole different story.” Laura sighed and yawned for the first time since she’d woken up from the nightmare.  
She heard Carmilla scoff.  
“You’re right about that. That’s why I have my own little galaxy right here.” There was a certain happiness to Carmilla’s voice that was so refreshing. It was light and happy, yet still it recognizable.  
Laura’s brown knitted in confusion.  
“What do you mean, you have your own galaxy? Do you mean you bought those little stars and planet things that kids put up in their room?” The image of Carmilla lying on her bed with those typical star and planet figures above her was now playing in her mind and she held back a laugh.  
“What?” Carmilla scoffed. “As if. I’d like to think I’m a bit more classy thank you very much.” She said it very matter-of-factly which just made Laura laugh harder.  
“But then, how?” Laura was really curious right now, though she felt the tiredness hit her.  
“I have to keep some of my mysteries, don’t I?” Carmilla simply responded. Laura groaned in response. It was followed by a yawn.  
“Oh come on Carm, just tell me.” Another yawn.  
Carmilla moved and Laura figured she was shaking her head.  
“But how’s this? I’ll show it to you someday. Okay, Sweetheart?”  
“Uh-huh. Sure” Her eyes shut on their own and she adjusted her position in her bed. Another yawn followed as Carmilla’s voice spoke some words she couldn’t really comprehend anymore. She just made a noise in response as she felt herself drift off into sleep once again.

On the other end of the like, Carmilla smiled to herself.  
“Goodnight, Laura. Sleep tight.”  
She listened for a second longer as Laura’s breathing evened out before she ended the call and stared back up at her ceiling. Maybe she should go to sleep herself. It was nearly two am by now and for the first time in years, she actually felt tired but at peace at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was aiming for 6000 words but I felt like this was a good end for this chapter.  
> Title was inspired by the band of friends of mine. They did their first ever performance on stage today so kudos to them.
> 
> Sorry this update took so long. My exams are finally over! But I will be going on vacation the first week of July. I'll try to update before then, but I can't promise anything. Busy days coming up.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. I hope you still like this story.


	7. Struggles of The Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I said I'd try to make my chapters longer but here I am with a short update again...  
> Truth is: I'm going on a week long vacation and it's been busy preparing for it. I wanted to update before I leave so here we are...  
> I know it's short, but I needed to sort out the Carm side of the story. So, in Carmilla's perspective: here's the next chapter. Enjoy

Chapter Seven: Struggles of The Mind

 

She woke up around eleven with the sunlight beaming on her face. In her talk with Laura, she’d forgotten to close the curtains before going to sleep. Apparently, she’d also fallen asleep in her clothes. But that had happened before. Now though, she didn’t regret a thing. That was new for sure. Getting up early – anything before one pm was early – and not minding sleeping in the uncomfortable position that came with wearing normal shorts. She simply hadn’t thought of changing after she hung up the phone last night.  
Laura had been concerned about her wellbeing and it had actually surprised her a bit. She knew after a scary experience like that, people had nightmares. Hell, even creatures of the undead like her still had nightmares about certain things. But she never thought Laura would actually call to make sure she was okay. She hadn’t known anybody to care about her that much since… well, _Ell._  
She knew it was dangerous, having someone care about her. Caring usually didn’t mean anything good if Maman found out. Most girls she had an eye on never got close enough to find out what exactly happened, but the one that did hadn’t lived to see another day. Carmilla knew she was moving into dangerous territory with Laura. She had to keep Laura at a safe distance but she found herself breaking that promise to herself the more she learned about the girl. The more Laura showed any sign of caring for her, the more she felt a pull to let Laura in. This was going to be a disaster and she knew it, yet she felt so good in those little moments she shared with Laura that she was selfish enough not to put an end to it. She just told herself that maybe this time, it could be different. Maybe if she kept Maman from finding out, it could work? Right? She’d tried not to let Laura pique her curiosity, of course, as she did every time she met someone new. But she’d also failed every single time.   
  
The first had been when Laura had asked for her to come with her to the hospital. She wanted to, but declined because she didn’t want to get close because she knew that in a situation like that, people became attached to each other much quicker than in other circumstances. But when Laura had sounded to hurt, she completely caved and wanted to change her mind. It had been too late then so she’d just tried to put it out of her mind, like she always did. This time though, nothing was as simple as the other times.   
After that followed other failed attempts, like the phone call. Or whenever she spaced out, or wasn’t working on anything in particular, her mind would wander back to Laura and the digits that stared back at her from her phone screen.

With their little meetup she had gotten a bit careless. While one side of her was screaming to be all dark and disaffected, the other only wanted to talk with Laura for hours over coffee and get to know her. But she always remembered what would happen to Laura if Maman discovered. But this time, she needed it to be different. For the first time in what felt like forever, Carmilla had felt normal. At least for a while. While they were talking over coffee, while she was drawing on the girl’s cast, while she glanced upon her face as Laura looked outside.

 

She decided to snap out of her thoughts the moment she caught herself actually considering letting Laura into her life. No. This was not up for debate. No one was ever going to be hurt because of her again. It would be selfish for her to wish harm upon the beautiful girl for a few weeks, possibly only days of moments filled with happiness.   
She stood up and disregarded the thoughts for now. She had an actual interesting class coming up and planned to do some creative work afterwards. It had been too long since she’d been able to draw anything and she felt the need to put her thoughts into images. That was what she needed to focus on right now. Class and drawing. Class and a feeding afterwards. Class and anything except for Laura. And galaxies. Maybe she should avoid looking up at her stars for a while.

 

\--

 

Her plan had worked. For a while. During class, she was able to focus on her professor and her study material. Not that she didn’t already know most of this stuff, but she liked to see where ever history was wrong every once in a while. Or more than people care to admit actually.  
But once class ended and she got back to her apartment to start a new art project, her thoughts were interrupted by the honey brown eyes again. Images of Laura flooded her mind any time she started sketching a face, or even a silhouette of a human. This situation was getting out of hand.   
She decided to drop drawing people, and resort to mere objects. Something she needed to improve anyways. She started sketching whatever was around her. Her pencil case on the desk, a sketch of a wall full of posters. The messy sheet on her bed. She could use the practice of drawing fabric and creases.   
She even tried to draw cats. Not that she had a cat running around, no this was her territory, no other cats allowed. But there was something she liked about their form. Her form. Her attitude when she was her animal form. The way she heard much more and much better. The way everything was so much simpler.  
Thinking about transforming made her itch to actually do it. It had been a while. She simply had no reason to. She grabbed her cup full of blood and drank a bit before deciding why the hell not, right?  
  
She cracked her neck, took a deep breath – a ritual – and when her eyes opened again, they were more cat like. She pushed the air out of her lungs as she started to shift. Her hands moved towards the ground as they transformed. Her skin, hair and clothes shifted to black fur and her ears shifted and grew. She yawned and stretched for a moment before jumping on her bed and lazily plopping down. She rested her head on her front legs and closed her cat eyes. She took up the entire bed, her tail dangling over the back. She stayed like that for a moment before she smelled something that was familiar, yet not in its place. Her ears were alert and her tail stilled as she froze. She shot up and scanned the room, trying to find the source. She walked out of her bedroom and into the living room. It didn’t take long for her to spot what it was that made her senses tingle.  
  
There on the back of the couch, rested the black and red plaid shirt she had dumped there after yesterday. She hadn’t thought much of it when she came home yesterday and figured she’d just wear it later, since she assumed Laura had washed it already. Now though, it was suddenly the most important object in the room. She walked towards it while she shifted back to her regular self, never hesitating in her steps. She took in it her hands and breathed in. Yeah, that was definitely Laura’s scent radiating off her shirt. How hadn’t she noticed this before? Usually she was good at noticing this kind of stuff. Was this girl actually affecting her?

 

But then she thought, okay, Laura had this shirt for a while but she only wore it once, right? That was weeks ago… There shouldn’t really be any scent anymore. Then the image of Laura wearing her shirt ran through her mind. Her eyes widened at the realization of what she was doing. She shook her head to get rid of the image. No, she had to stop doing this, to herself. To Laura. To Maman.

 

The next time Maman expected her at an event, she couldn’t just drop everything and rush to someone’s aid. Okay, Laura’s voice had sounded entirely too panicked to ignore so she didn’t even second guess the decision she made when she ran out that door. But she should have known that Maman would be pissed at her for just blowing her off. One more stunt like this and she’d have Maman on her back for months.   
She couldn’t let Maman find out anything about Laura. She’d just end up on Maman’s list of people to ‘take care of’ and Carmilla would never see the honey brown eyes again. Even though Carmilla and Laura weren’t close yet, Maman didn’t take any risks after she had found out about Ell. So Carmilla didn’t either.

 

She took the shirt back into her bedroom and threw it on her bed as she resumed her sketches on her desk. Time to get her thoughts out of the gutter again. She’d just have to give this distancing thing another go, as she always did.

\--

She ate dinner at her desk because by the time she got hungry, she was finally working on a drawing she liked and just couldn’t stop. She hadn’t thought about Laura in all this time and time seemed to be flying by. Her plate stood disregarded with her glass empty by now, but she couldn’t care less. Her ink brush flew over her pencil lines from her sketches, making them permanent on the paper underneath her fingers. It felt good to be able to put emotions on paper after not finding the right images for a long time.

The first time she looked at the clock since she’d started was at two AM. Seeing that number stare at her from her laptop, that played the music she worked to, made her sigh. Two AM was always a dipping point for her. She glanced down at her work one more time before deciding it was time to call it a day – or night. It had to dry before she could work on it any further, and she just felt like all the creative capacity had been drained from her body. The only way to reload was with sleep.

 

She took her diches to her kitchen, which already had a lot of plates sitting in the sink from the past week, and dumped them on top of the stack. Sunday was the only day she did the diches. Mondays were reserved for laundry. Once a week was more than enough according to her. Sometimes, when she had a lazy week and wore the same black shirt for a few days, she skipped a week. It wasn’t like she had any roommates to take into account. If it was good enough for her, it would do.  
She made sure her door was locked, and pulled all the curtains closed to block out the morning sunlight. She didn’t want to wake up after three hours of sleep to realize it was only six AM. She still had to shower and she didn’t plan on making it a speedy shower in any way. She enjoyed showers. She liked to let her hair get wet and let it air-dry into its natural wavy curls afterwards. She liked to feel the drops tick against her skin. But she didn’t like baths, she stayed far away from those, for good reason.

 

It was fifteen minutes later that she emerged from the bathroom, wearing only a black shirt that was a few sizes too big and panties. Her hair was soaking the shirt as it was pulled over one shoulder. She put a towel around her roots and squeezed the water out, once again. She didn’t care about the shirt getting wet, but she hated water drops falling on the hardwood floor that decorated her bedroom.

 

She picked up her phone from her desk and climbed into her bed, propping some pillows against the wall to rest her back against. She wasn’t tired yet but she felt too tired to do anything else, so she just decided to pick up the latest book she was reading and continued where she left off last time. Being half cat had its advantages, like now. She could read with very little light. The stars in her ceiling were more than enough for her, but a human would hurt their eyes.   
She got lost in the words, sure. But it didn’t help her get sleepy. Tired, sure, not sleepy though. After about an hour, she was getting frustrated. Sure, tomorrow was Saturday, but she would like to go to sleep before four so she could actually get enough hours of sleep before she’d inevitably woke up around one or two PM.

She huffed as a strand of nearly dry hair fell in front of her eyes again. She blew it out of her sight and clapped the book shut. This wasn’t working. She groaned as she let herself fall to the side and she just lied there for a while, completely still.

_Maybe some music?_ A silence followed in her mind. _Nah._

She threw the book to the side and repositioned herself on her bed. She now faced her stars and followed the constellations with her eyes, tracing imaginary lines in between the stars. She knew all these by heart, of course, but it was still something she did on a regular basis. It seemed to calm her mind.

 

Though it didn’t seem in need of calming down, it still helped settle her thoughts. Yes, she thought about Laura, how could she not? But this time, she wasn’t angry at herself for doing so. She also didn’t feel the need to have her any closer or to push her away like she was planning before. She was just content right now with having the tiny, yet not-much-smaller-than-her blonde on her mind.

 

It was right before she fell asleep, maybe even before that, or perhaps it was in the middle of what she called her night, but somewhere along the way she had reached for the black and red plaid shirt that she threw on her bed earlier, and breathed in the scent with a smile plastered on her face.


	8. Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Chapter Eight

 

Laura woke up with a jump. She’d been half awake, half asleep when she recalled the events of the night before. She frantically looked around for her phone to find evidence that what happened hadn’t actually just been a dream. Her phone rested not too far from her head on the bed. She snatched it up from the sheets and immediately went to her call history. It was true, she had called Carmilla. They’d talked and shared a few great moments and then – Oh no. She actually fell asleep on her? Dammit.   
She did notice that Carmilla had ended the call a little after two, meaning she and Laura had talked for about an hour. That meant she had slept for a decent amount of time. She did feel well rested, now that she thought about it. She didn’t feel the need to crack her neck, or yawn, or try and go back to sleep. She was perfectly fine to get up out of bed.

 

She glanced at the clock on her phone and saw it was already nearing nine AM.  Then she really did have a goodnight sleep. She got out of bed after turning off her Friday alarm which was going to go off in a few moments. She started up her laptop and while she waited for that to get going, she fixed herself some breakfast. Nothing beat toast with Nutella for her. Okay, maybe chocolate chip cookies, or mac and cheese… But as far as breakfast goes, she was quite happy with the simple things. Yes, pancakes or waffles were really nice and all, but why go through the trouble when you have a perfectly capable toaster and a jar of Nutella?

She grabbed her yellow pillow from her bed to support her back - or to sit on if she wanted to make herself taller – put the breakfast down and took one more trip to the kitchen to fetch her TARDIS mug. She couldn’t blog without it. It was a form of tradition to sip whatever drink she wanted from that mug while she blogged.

Of course, because of her cast, she’d been blogging less. It was hard for her to type and she had this little project figured out to make up for her lack of posts lately. She was going to make videos instead of writing long posts about whatever topic was sparking her interest that week. Sometimes she made opinion posts, sometimes it was a journalism post. But mostly, she used her blog to vent about whatever feelings she had.

So for the past few weeks, it had been about the struggles of having your arm in a cast, and that night, and she even hinted something about Carmilla but she just called her the ‘heroic lifesaving beauty’. That did Carmilla justice, right? She thought so for sure.

Now, she was setup for a whole new experiment: Vlogging, video blogging. Only, she wouldn’t be doing it on the move like most people did. But it was still called vlogging right? Whatever. She thought it would be the perfect way to keep her readers in the loop and spare time and effort.

 

She took a deep breath and turned on her camera. She didn’t know a lot about lighting and positioning but the way her camera was directed and she came into view seemed good enough. Especially for a first time vlogger. She did do her research and found out that most Youtubers used scripts to make their best content so that’s exactly what she did. She’d typed out a little script that was composed of key words instead of sentences. This worked best for her and she wouldn’t go completely off track with her ramblings. She had the tendency to ramble. A lot.

 

She took a deep breath and pressed the record button. “Hi there, gentle viewers! And welcome to me blog” She starts off but immediately pauses. Was that good? Good enough? This had to be good. Okay sure, there weren’t thousands of people watching, but she still cared about her little journalism projects, even if they were for her own personal use and not a school project. Maybe this was going to be in her portfolio as her first vlog ever. This had to be perfect, not just good.  
She started over.  
“Hi there, gentle viewers! Welcome to the video version of this blog!” She smiled into the camera. This already felt really normal.  
“I know I’ve talked about it before but… This,” she held her casted arm up for the future audience to see, “is why I’m switching to video’s. For a while at least.” She put her arm down again. This was going well so far.  
“For those of you who don’t know about the cast yet, we need to go back to where it all began. I’ll keep it short.” She had thought about wanting to broadcast her story all over the internet, okay maybe not _all over_ but it was still out there, and she decided this was a good thing. Who knows, maybe other people took comfort from it? To know they’re not alone? She wasn’t sure, but she knew this would be okay.  
“I got attacked on the street and while dialing by best friend, I accidentally ended up talking to a stranger who was in the neighborhood and totally kicked my attacker’s a- butt. She’s totally my hero and I couldn’t thank her enough. She gave me her plaid shirt to cover me up a bit. She wasn’t in time to help prevent this,” She pointed towards the cast again, “but she saved my life.” She couldn’t help but smile at the image of Carmilla in her mind, even though she was talking about one of the worst things to ever happen to her, she was smiling because she was just so thankful for having Carmilla there.  
“Of course I had to return her shirt so we met up at my local coffee shop. My cast was decorated with the names of my three best friends but she thought it could use a little… something. She pulled out some markers and boom!” She put up her arm and turned it a few times to show it to the camera.

“She drew me a galaxy! A freaking galaxy! Can you believe it?” She was still as in love with it as she first had been. “When I asked her about it, she told me she’d show me why she drew it for me one day.  
She’s so wonderful and I’m glad I met her.” She already couldn’t wait till she got to talk to her again, even though it had technically only been about seven hours since they last spoke.

“She even helped me calm down after a nightmare I had last night. She’s all kinds of amazing and I hope the people in her life know that.”

She took a pause and watched the paper version of the script she made. She’d just cut it out later.  
“Okay! So now that you know the story, we can move on to other topics.”

 

Laura went on like this for a while. She decided to leave out some topics that she had written down initially and talk a bit more about some others, but overall, she was glad with the progress she made. She had to record some things twice but eventually everything came together after an hour of editing. It wasn’t a lot of work because she did most pieces of one topic in one take, but she still wanted to add some special features like a track in the background and maybe a dorky image here or there. She thought it added in charm.

 

When she was done, she started the upload. In the meantime she got ready for class. She wasn’t that hungry so she figured she could just stop by the coffee shop _Sugar and Spice_ and get a muffin to eat on the way. She checked her phone for any new messages before heading out. Her dad had sent her a text and Danny texted her asking her to meet up at the coffee shop. When the upload was done and a reply text was sent, she headed out the door. She couldn’t wait to get back from class to see if she got any views or notifications on her video.

 

Danny was waiting by the door of _Sugar and Spice_ with two cups in her hands.  
“Hey Laura!” She waited until Laura was in front of her to hand her the hot cup of coffee. She’d just skip the bite and eat later.  
“Thanks! Sorry I’m late, I was working on this project – “  
“Are you ever not working? You deserve a break with that cast and all…” Danny left the rest unsaid but they both knew what she meant.   
“Well, this is actually something for my blog, not school.” She and the tall redhead started walking towards the university while Laura filled her in on her new idea. She did ramble, but Danny didn’t seem to mind. Danny had always been a good friend like that.   
“So, have you heard anything about that, that uh ‘galaxy girl’?” Danny asked once Laura was done telling her about her new vlogs. Laura wasn’t sure what to detect in Danny’s voice, but there was a curious tone to it. She hadn’t really told Danny about Carmilla when telling her about the vlogs.   
“Carmilla? Um yeah, I have actually.” Laura smiled just thinking about it. “Why are you so curious?” She didn’t mean for it to sound so… weird. It just did.  
Danny shrugged, “I was just wondering if you’re staying in contact with her. Do you think that’s a good idea?”  
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Laura was confused now. Why would Danny be so protective? To be blunt, it was kind of annoying her.

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, you don’t really know her, right? She just helped you out one time and not that that’s not great – it is – but, you know…” Something was off. Danny was being weird and she just couldn’t figure out what was going on. Sure, Danny had a point. A good one in fact. But the tone of voice she used when saying it reminded her of the tone Danny used when she was trying too hard to sound casual.

“Carmilla’s a friend, Danny. At least, I think I can consider her one.” Her brow furrowed in thought. How could she not when Carmilla saved her life? The least she could do was be friendly. She kind of enjoyed her company, so it wasn’t like it was hard to like her in the first place.  
Danny just regarded her for a moment. “If you say so.”

They walked to their classes in silence for the rest of the way. Laura was lost in thought. Maybe she could meet up with Carmilla this weekend? After last night, she wanted nothing more than to be in her company again. She may have come off as snarky but she really does have a soft side.

 

Her class wasn’t too boring. She was able to take notes despite her arm. She couldn’t wait until she got home to check her blog though. How many views would it have gotten by now? Probably not a lot, but hopefully more than 10. But what she really cared about were comments. They’d help her get better at vlogging and in the end that mattered most. Improvement.

Then a thought wandered through her mind. What if Carmilla saw it? Nah, that’s impossible. She didn’t even know about her blog. She disregarded the thought and focused on her walk back home.

 

She walked back past _Sugar and Spice_ when her stomach grumbled. Her body was craving some food and when another customer walked out the door, she smelled the fresh baked goods and simply couldn’t resist them. She went inside and ordered her regular cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon along with two giant chocolate chip cookies. Though it was technically spring, some days had cold fall weather. She took a seat at the same table she had shared with Carmilla not long ago and smiled at the memory. The conversation had started off kind of awkward but the more they talked, the more Carmilla seemed to feel at ease. As a result, so had she. Opening up to someone new had been scary in the past, but all felt right when it was Carmilla. She had liked watching Carmilla focus on the drawing on her cast. She’d looked so absolutely stunning.

 

She caught a glimpse of deep dark hair walking past the window and shot up. Could that have been Carmilla? She tried to lean as close to the window as possible without completely pressing her cheek against the window. If it had been her, she was gone now. Laura deflated a bit and sipped her now lukewarm chocolate. Geez, how long had she been lost in thought? Far too long for sure. She finished her cup and her cookies before heading out the door again. Homewards, this time for real.

\--

The rest of her day was quiet uneventful. Checked her vlog for views. Thirty views already, and two comments of long time followers of her blog. She smiled at that. They were all positive and gave her some feedback. She really appreciated their support. Maybe she should try to pick up vlogging some more?

She checked her phone more than once that day. Waiting, maybe even hoping – no, surely not – for a text message from a certain someone. That hope led her to jump when her phone actually did buzz while she was working on some homework. Alas, when she checked it, she saw Danny’s name flashing on her screen. It was a text asking if everything was alright. She’d gotten those kinds of text more and more from Danny lately. She told herself it wasn’t because of what happened, but she knew she was kidding herself deep down. Danny would always look out for her. Even when she didn’t want it.

She answered in the most neutral way possible. She didn’t want to sound sad or annoyed that it wasn’t Carmilla that had texted her. Certainly Danny didn’t want to hear she was sad because of some stupid crush she had on – Oh. _Oh_.

She froze in her seat. Was she crushing on Carmilla? She totally was, wasn’t she? _Oh_ _crap_.

“Let a girl draw on your cast once and you’re already crushing on her. Well done, you.” She mumbled to herself and let her head fall onto her arms that were laying on the desk.

Maybe not the best decision because laying your head on a cast? Not that comfortable. Who knew?

She sighed and stared up at her computer screen. This wasn’t working at all. She couldn’t get the words on paper and just started to get frustrated with herself for being unable to write. It used to flow so easily and now, she couldn’t even make two coherent sentences. She snatched her phone from beside her as she got up and fell down on her bed. She needed a distraction.

 

Yes, she thought about calling her. A lot. Her fingers hovering over the call button on her phone for what felt like an eternity. She had all the pro’s and con’s listed in her mind. The pro’s being:

-          Carmilla’s company ++

-          Carmilla’s voice

-          Carmilla’s funny remarks on things she so obviously found stupid that Laura adored.

-          Carmilla’s laugh, maybe, if she’d get her to laugh.

-          Carmilla’s everything

And the con’s were limited to:

-          “I’m a nervous wreck when I think about talking to her because we only talked just yesterday and that was very intimate and maybe we don’t know each other well enough for that and Laura breathe.”

She had the tendency to ramble. A lot. Sometimes she forgot how to breathe. Not a good quality, she agreed. But she couldn’t help it!

 

Eventually, she tore her eyes and hands away from the name in her contact list and scrolled down the alphabet.

The phone rang a few times before an excited voice came through.

_“Hey L!”_ Then their voiced changed to a bit more serious _. “Something wrong?”_

Laura smiled. They always knew what was going on. “Hey LaFontaine. Yeah – well, no. Nothing’s going on… Not really. But you know, there is. And,” she dragged out the vowel to give her some time to think, “I’m not really sure, you know, what to do about what’s on my mind and I’d like for you to help me with that. But it’s like, totally ridiculous and you’re going to laugh at me for sure. But I really need someone to talk to but it can’t be Perry because you know how she is with problems like these. And it can’t be Danny because  - well, it just can’t. That would be awkward. Do things seem weird between me and Danny. They do –“

“ _LAURA!”_ She got pulled out of her ramble by LaFontaine’s strong voice coming through the receiver. “ _Breathe first, okay?”_ When they were satisfied to hear Laura take a few deep breaths, they continued. “ _Okay. First thing’s first. What’s on your mind? I’ll totally help you with it but I first need to know what the problem is. That’s kinda how problem solving works, you know_?”

Laura smiled a bit. LaF was a good scientist and problem solving was one of their specialties. Only it didn’t always go so well. When it came to science. They were a great friend.  
“Well, there’s this girl. I think I like her. Like, have a crush on her? I don’t know, LaF.” Laura sighed.

_“Just to be sure that I’m on the same page… You’re totally crushing on Carmilla, right_?” There was amusement in their voice rather than a questioning tone.

“Wha-“ Laura didn’t expect them to actually know who she meant. Should she have expected more? It was LaFontaine after all… They knew everything. “Yes this is about Carmilla. But about the crush? I mean, I think I am. I’m not sure.”

“ _Oh well, I am. Don’t worry, Laura. It’s totally cool. It’s not hard to see the hearts your eyes form when you’re talking about her.”_ Laura blushed. Did she really have heart eyes? She didn’t even know the girl that well.

“I do _not_ have heart eyes!” Laura went in defense.

_“Uh huh, sure Frosh. Whatever you say.”_ Laura was about to interrupt when they spoke again. _“So what was that part about Danny? Awkward? Explain.”_

Laura took a deep breath. She wasn’t even sure if there was anything to explain. “So, you know how Danny was kind of protective about the attack thing?” She got a dragged out, questioning ‘yeah?’ as response. “Well, she’s been getting very protective. Waiting for me to walk me to class. Texting me to ask if I got home safe. Asking me all these questions about Carmilla and if I’m sure I can trust her. She’s just being so… weird. And it got pretty awkward this morning between us.”

Okay, maybe implying that Danny had asked a bunch of questions was a bit over the top. It were only two or so, but two very weird ones. Overprotective ones. Ones Laura didn’t really know the answer to and perhaps didn’t want to find out.

_“Look, Laura. I do get what you’re saying, but when your best friend gets attacked, you do have to understand that Danny is going to be a bit more protective of you then._ ” They went on before Laura could cut in. “ _Yes, maybe a bit too much. Just let her know, kindly. She’ll understand, I’m sure. If you don’t want her to text you those kinds of things, or walk you to class, talk to her.”_

“Okay, thanks LaF. I guess I knew what to do but just didn’t really want to do anything about it, to make it even more awkward, you know?” She heard a hum on the other side of the line in agreement.

“ _As for the questions about Carmilla. I get that. I mean, you tell us about her sure, but we don’t know her. And look, the circumstances in which you met her weren’t really normal, right? So I’m sure Danny is just implying to be wary of strangers. Of course I’m all for making new friends, just don’t overstep. Okay?”_ Laura understood what LaFontaine was saying. She did. But she just couldn’t help but think that everything was fine with Carmilla. Sure, Carmilla wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine among people, but she was sweet. She was a sweet person deep down who had saved her life. She was a hero. Her hero.

She rounded up her conversation with LaFontaine, asking about how they were doing and how Perry was before calling it a night and deciding to crawl into bed early. She had a few things to think about as she lie awake, waiting for sleep to hit her and take her mind to a simpler place. But after all, today was not a bad day. Even though she hadn’t talked to Carmilla, having passed today meant she was one day closer to seeing her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally managed to put more than ten words on paper a day and wrote most of this today. Hooray writers block -.-  
> It's not my best, but I really hope it's good enough for you all.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr for contact: Caskettmyheart.tumblr.com


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